A Philadelphia developer will help the New Jersey Performing Arts Center mount its next big production -- a high-rise apartment building in downtown Newark.

Dranoff Properties will put its extensive urban development experience to work at Two Center Street, the first major expansion at NJPAC since the facility opened in 1997.

JOHN MUNSON/THE STAR-LEDGERA model of the NJPAC construction plan.

Rising on a 1.2-acre site directly across from the arts center's entrance, Two Center Street will feature 250 residential units, 15,000 to 30,000 square feet of retail space and a parking deck for up to 750 cars.

Preliminary sketches show the building being 28 stories high. By comparison, the nearby Robert Treat Hotel is 14 stories.

The $200 million project -- the first new apartment building in downtown Newark in 45 years -- represents the arts center's continued effort to revitalize the city, one of its core missions. It will also allow NJPAC to benefit financially from those efforts, from both basic rent and an undetermined percentage of future earnings.

JOHN MUNSON/THE STAR-LEDGERThe parking lot and short tan building across the street from NJPAC is the site of the first phase of a new construction plan.

NJPAC and Dranoff have reached a preliminary agreement that allows the design stage to begin while the financial negotiations continue, NJPAC President and CEO Lawrence Goldman said.

NJPAC selected Dranoff based on its 10-year track record of imaginative urban projects, Goldman said. Dranoff built a high-rise near the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia and converted the historic RCA Victor factory on the Camden waterfront into luxury loft apartments.

Goldman described the developer as a trendsetter whose passion for urban revitalization is on par with NJPAC.

"Building market-rate housing in a converted factory on the Camden waterfront had about as many believers as building a world-class arts center in Newark had," said Goldman, who said Dranoff was selected from a pool of 12 developers. "He is a pioneer ... and a very good partner for us."

The approximately 500,000-square-foot project is a natural for his company, said Carl Dranoff, founder and CEO. "We like to do large, bold, transformative projects," he said "It's a wonderful site in a city whose time has come."

Past Dranoff projects share critical elements with the NJPAC plan. His firm built the Symphony House high-rise in Philadelphia in 2006, about 100 steps from the Kimmel Center.

And he's not afraid to be a trailblazer. Camden's reputation in 2002 -- as a city with a struggling economy and a high crime rate -- was even more problematic than Newark's is now.

"We took on the impossible and proved the skeptics wrong," he said. "Newark is waiting for this project. Someone has to take that big first step."

Newark Deputy Mayor Stefan Pryor said the city and state have been involved in early discussions about the project.

"This is the leading edge of an important trend in Newark, the development of a 24/7 downtown residential community," Pryor said. "Newark is definitely headed in that direction, and NJPAC is leading the way."

Like Dranoff's Camden project -- which began with the Victor and continues with Radio Lofts, another adaptive project on the waterfront -- Two Center Street is envisioned as the first of a three-phase project on the arts center's 12-acre campus. Two more buildings -- one with high-end condominiums and the other the site of a hotel -- are on the drawing table.

It is too soon to estimate what a rental unit will cost, the partners say, but they agree the price would be less than those in nearby Jersey City and Hoboken. Rents at the upscale loft apartments at the Victor in Camden run from $1,000 to $2,900.

Dranoff said he wants to break ground within 18 months and be on the market in another two or three years. He acknowledged the economic forecast is not strong but said the finish line is years off.

"Even in a down economy, the really top-quality projects, the ones with amenities and attractions, they will be successful," he said.

First, though, the partners must agree on the design and financing of the building. Goldman said NJPAC's architect, Barton Myers, will meet with the developer's team in the next few weeks. The agreement gives the arts center the right to review the design. Myers' participation from the beginning will ensure the partners are on the right track.

That provision is more the exception than the rule, said Dranoff, but he appreciates its motivation. "He wants to make sure we are building a quality product," he said. "We know Barton Myers and Larry, and we feel very comfortable that we can create a world-class building and neighborhood."